Tag: New York MMA

Next to mankind’s eternal battle with death, the UFC’s battle with New York legislatures might be the most one-sided and ultimately futile effort in the history of ever, and I say that with 100 percent sincerity.

The UFC held a show in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1995, and all was well and good. That is, until New York banned professional mixed martial arts in 1997 on the grounds that it was “human cockfighting” and fights to the death suck. Or something like that. But the passage of time has seen the sport evolve, and now MMA is sanctioned almost everywhere in the country — everywhere but New York.

So last year Zuffa filed a lawsuit against the state alleging that the ban violated all sorts of Constitutional rights, and while the suit is currently mired in the muck of the judicial process, and efforts to change the law via the legislature get bogged down year after maddening year, something has changed. Depending on where you live in the state, it’s now possible to take in an MMA event live. There are shows sprouting up on the sovereign territory of Indian Reservations, and amateur MMA competitions are kicking off in ice skating rinks and in armories — all of them happening pretty much unmolested by an athletic commission that went from “search and destroy” mode to laissez-faire in seemingly the blink of an eye. Which begs the question: What the heck is going on in New York?

The short answer is that there’s a lot going in New York. The long answer, however, involves an athletic commission finally admitting that amateur MMA is legal, fights on Indian Land, and an underground fight scene that shows no signs of slowing down.

A national anti-violence group, the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence sent a four-page letter today to New York State Assemblymen and women today, urging them to oppose the legalization in their state based on a weak argument that unfortunate comments made by fighters and UFC president Dana White in the past promote violence against “women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people” in particular. The group also claims that the UFC basically encourages it’s fighters to talk like sailors.

Now, I’m as against some of the bad PR moves certain fighters have made with their loose lips and lapses of judgment the past few years, but I have yet to hear anyone who has ever cashed a UFC paycheck threaten to beat a homosexual, a woman or someone who has undergone a sex change. Using a gay slur against a straight person, although reprehensible, is not intended to be offensive to the group it ultimately defends, the same as a fighter calling another fighter “a bitch” is not done to offend female dogs. The difference is the SPCA has better things to do than write letters all day.

If you notice, the crux of the NCDAV’s argument hinges on info they were given by a group called UnfitforChildren.org, which is a front for the Culinary Union — the labor group embroiled in a legal battle with the Fertitta-Owned Station Casinos. The head of the Union is even CC’ed on the letter.

If I were the UFC, I’d be making some rebuttal-ads similar to the political ones we see around election time exposing the union’s dirty tactics. Until then I’m sure we’ll have plenty of do-good groups nobody has ever heard of like the NCDSV popping up with their soap boxes to tell people what they shouldn’t be allowed to watch or do. Between sips of jasmine tea and blogging about freecycling, these mother hens do all they can to make sure that they browbeat everyone who will listen into condemning anything that they find even remotely offensive, lest they be labeled unsympathetic to women or proponents of violence against them.

The truth is, they probably are sick of their husbands watching UFC on Saturday nights and want someone to take them to the new Rachel McAdams movie.

Anyway, if you have the stomach for it, you can read the entire useless letter after the jump.

“This Sunday marks the ten-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The way America looked at itself was altered immensely on that date, and a decade later the world is a very different place. Memories of panic and uncertainty are still present, but the urge to keep moving forward is even stronger. In remembrance of this anniversary, TheFightNerd.com, has released an exclusive short-film that commemorates this event alongside the New York MMA community. ‘A Fighting Spirit’ is a video memoir that interviews members of the NY martial arts community and discusses where they were when the Towers collapsed, how they have coped, and how New York and America have grown stronger.

Directed by Kahleem Poole-Tejada (director of the full-length documentary ‘New York MMA’) and produced by Matthew Kaplowitz (Editor-in-Chief of TheFightNerd.com) in association with Ranger Up, the film takes viewers around a tour of downtown Manhattan and provides a glimpse inside several of New York City’s top MMA gyms. It features many NY-based fighters, such as Renzo Gracie, Chris Weidman, Pete ‘Drago’ Sell, and Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro, as well as Stephen Koepfer of NY Combat Sambo, Mark Yehia of ‘Elite Plus MMA,’ Rob Constance of ‘The Renzo Gracie Academy’ and President of the ‘Ultimate Absolute’ grappling tournament, and Emilio Novoa, President of ADCC North America. Also appearing is UFC middleweight fighter Jorge Rivera, as well as Strikeforce middleweight Tim Kennedy, who adds the voices of members of the U.S. Armed Forces to this emotional piece.”

As a New York resident since August 2002, the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 has put me in a reflective mood all week. Maybe you feel the same. If you have any recollections or tributes to share from that day, please leave them in the comments section. Here, I’ll start…

The vote gap between staunch MMA opponent New York Democrat Assemblyman Bob Reilly and his opponent Jennifer Whalen is widening as State officials total the absentee ballots from last week’s midterm election today.

According to a TimesUnion.com report, with 44 of the 60 voting districts counted today Reilly’s lead has increased by 91 votes to 522 over his Republican opponent.

Although she hasn’t completely given up hope, Whalen doesn’t seem optimistic that she can recover from such a large hole with only 16 districts left to count.

"I don’t know if I can make up the ground. I’m not going to give up until everything is opened and counted," she said. "I can’t be happier with the fact I’m a newcomer and I almost unseated an incumbent."